So speculate how long until MOP? June, August, October, December or ?

[chaos5061]

Mists of Pandaria Mage Class Guide
Our friends over at Fatboss made a nice long video guide to the different Mage talents, spells, and glyphs. Let them know if you liked it and want to see more!

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Upcoming Developer Chat
If you were not able to get your questions answered during the Reddit Q&A, you will have another chance! The developers are doing another chat over at BestBuy on Tuesday, September 18th at 6 PM CST. This time the format will be a moderated text based chat.

[chaos5061]

Challenge Mode Difficulty and Nerfs
Seriously blizzard, if CHALLENGE modes are ever nerfed to the point say like the cataclysm heroic dungeons were, what would be the point in calling them CHALLENGE mode runs?
That isn't the intention. Now, there could be times were a particular dungeon has a specific mechanic, pull, or encounter that is more difficult than we intended in all difficulties. In cases like that you may see us make adjustments to the dungeon across the board.

But, to be clear, our intent isn't to make Challenge Mode dungeons more accessible or easier over time. In part this is also why, as you acquire more powerful gear over the course of the expansion, it will be scaled down in this setting so that the challenge remains roughly equivalent from the start of the expansion to the end. We also don't allow matchmaking for them, as they're intended to be difficult for organized groups.

I can totally see you guys nerfing a previous set when a new set comes out however. Seems to be par the course. Nerf it when it's not current content.
The Challenge Mode dungeon structure is really closely bound up with the leaderboards we’re going to have. It isn’t really possible to “nerf” the content meaningfully without invalidating those leaderboards. It may be helpful to think of the Gold medal armor sets as analogous to Gladiator mounts. We may have a new “season” of Challenges, with new dungeons to race through, but that doesn’t mean that past seasons’ rewards will suddenly become more attainable.

Hey if challenge modes are cool and go well, will we get challenge raids like AQ40 and MC??? If so you guys should have challenge mode raid achievements for each raid and dungeon just basically saying you did em cause I think that would be cool and well worth my time to play.
If players really like Challenges and we see a lot of interest in the leaderboards, there's definitely the potential there for extending the system to raid content in some form. We've already seen a lot of interest in raid speed runs -- from our very own BlizzCon Live Raid to other events that fansites have hosted with streamed races between top guilds -- and it’s compelling to us. We'd love to explore formalizing that system!

Wouldn't it defeat the point of them? Normals for leveling, heroics for that initial gearing for T14 (and they are much easier than Cata's were on launch, I've tested them), and Challenge modes for those who want a challenge. I get it, some people can spend more time on and in WoW than others, but isn't it ok to have something like this for those who want to be challenged?
Not only that, a good, organized Challenge Mode group will likely find farming Valor in Challenge dungeons to be more efficient. They're not set on a lockout like Heroic dungeons are, and the bosses reward more Valor than on Heroic, plus there's a daily quest to complete a specific Challenge Mode dungeon each day for a Valor bonus.

Conversely, a player who doesn't readily have four friends online at regular intervals will probably find running Heroic Dungeon Finder to be more efficient for obtaining Valor. Challenge dungeons are at least on par with the most difficult Burning Crusade Heroics, and death will still cost ya.

Now, in this thread I've been sharing a lot of information I've learned from Ion Hazzikostas, an awesome man, so I just want to throw in my own copper (psst, I have more than two!).

I've never been more impressed with a World of Warcraft endgame design model than I am with Mists. I think the way various prestige, vanity, fun, diverse, and power-increasing progression systems are designed shows such a commitment to the creation of gameplay with broad appeal, while preserving the philosophy that prestige can be earned through a combination of effort and exceptional performance.

Did I just go full fanboy on our devs? I'm sorry.

You never go full fanboy.

[chaos5061]

No Nerfs For Challenge Modes
If at all feasible, we're not going to be adjusting the content itself. Persistent leaderboards are the backbone of the system, and if we make the dungeon easier, then your 14:13 time last week might actually be more impressive than my 14:05 clear today, but there would be no way of knowing that. It's conceivable that we might adjust the actual Gold/Silver/Bronze cutoff times slightly if it turns out we were badly off the mark with the tuning, but we're pretty confident in our numbers.

As far as composition goes, I can't promise that every possible composition will be able to get Gold. (Apologies in advance to the prospective monk/monk/monk/monk/monk groups out there.) Every composition will be able to get Silver (subject to some fairly basic ground rules such as "you have a healer"), and every class should have multiple viable group makeups in which it can obtain Gold, assuming masterful play.

Can I do Temple of the Jade Serpent as many times as I want in challange mode per day? Or does it have a lock system?
You can run the same challenge mode dungeon as many times per day as you like.

It'll be a bit before we hear an answer on that one, as I suspect Watcher reacted to it with a "hmm, good question". I'm sure a dev somewhere has at least considered the question, but they might not have settled on their final answer yet.
We like the gameplay of adjusting talents to suit the situation. We don't like the gameplay of cycling through power cooldown talents to effectively benefit from an entire tier of choices simultaneously. Our plan is to allow the former while disallowing the latter.

Does this mean you have a workaround for the dreaded "You have entered too many instances recently" or will this be popping up during challenge modes?

I am specifically thinking of running in engaging boss 1, failing somehow and resetting. Rinse and repeat that 5x on the current system (Assuming reseting a challenge mode works like resetting a normal instance) and you'll be locked out for an hour minus however long it took you to wipe those 5x.
Challenge modes have a special reset system. The party leader can instantly reset a challenge run from inside the instance via a menu dropdown from his or her unitframe. The group gets ported back to the entrance, and everything in the instance reverts to its original state. There's no limit on how often you can do that. You may still want to finish a somewhat botched run though, if you aren't capped on Valor for the week, since each completed run will award Valor.

What's the word on profession items and weird items such as Nifty Stopwatch, Potions of Speed, Swift Boots, Rocket Boots, netherweave nets, flasks, food and other "creative items"
There are no restrictions on items or consumables.

[chaos5061]

Beta Class Balance Analysis
Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Currently by taking "Glyph of Shred", when Tiger's Fury or Berserk is active, "Shred" is replaced by "Shred!" There are a few errors (exists on both Live and Beta).
Fixed.

Druid / Rogue
Just wondering GC, have you found out why stealth level was reduced yet?
No, we're not sure how it happened, but it was indeed lowered so we raised it back up for rogue and Feral druids, restoring the same effectiveness they had in 4.3.

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
How is this not counter your often-stated goal of increasing the clarity of game mechanics to new players? I know I'd be confused if my DS magically hit harder when I switched specs, just like I was when CS magically changed its cooldown when I first specced my paladin Prot last expansion.
I sympathize with what you're saying, but it takes a fairly sophisticated player (and certainly not a new one) to notice that Death Strike is or is not doing 308% weapon damage + 2079. Put another way, the tooltips have never been as remotely accurate as they are in 5.0. In previous expansions they often out and out lied because the damage was affected by so many considerations that the tooltips weren't sophisticated enough to catch. Spell tooltips are pretty smart now, smarter than ever anyway, but they still have limitations. We try to get them as accurate as possible, but there are plenty of situations when that is not the case.

It's hitting for 280% in blood. The tooltip is just wrong, they forgot to reduce it to 200% in the tooltip before adding the 1.4x modifier for blood. They just added the 1.4x modifier, and left it the same according to the tooltip. It still doing 280% + whatever.

This is likely the case. We have to manually build tooltips a lot these days and the tooltip may not have been updated, but the damage was. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP Power and Resilience Effects on Gear Strength
PvP power and resilience is an undeniably great stat for PvP and you will definately be wanting more of it. If you would like to know more about how PvP power/resilience works in MoP, Vanguards guide is a great read, although very long and complex. You can find it here: http://www.arenajunkies.com/news/525...ilience-guide/

i wouldn't worry, for pvp, pvp gear is now the best gear you can wear, if you wear pve gear you'll do less damage and take far more This is very true. In the above guide if you check some of the graphs, you will see the large disparity between the damage done with and without the PvP stats.

Pvp power and pvp defense doesnt work on like outside of sw while you duel other people??
Whenever you are attacking another player, PvP power will boost your damage done. Whereas PvP power only increases your healing done if you are not in a dungeon or raid. So in duels and world PvP, PvP gear will be better

[chaos5061]

Paragon Switching to 10 Man Raiding for Mists of Pandaria
Today Paragon announced that they will be moving to 10 man raids for Mists of Pandaria. For the new full roster, see their site.

After Dragon Soul progression many of our players decided to quit the game, some of them were already showing lack of interest during the DS progress raids. In total 34 players took part in DS progress, 14 of which are no longer playing WoW at all. Most of them were longtime core players. On top of that some of our current players can't put in the time anymore as they used to do.

We were able to get some quality recruits to replace the ones whom had quit, but not enough. So far we had recruited 12 players. It has always been hard for us to recruit new players and we pretty much had the same core of 20+ from late Ulduar to Dragon Soul which played a big part in our success.

During the beta it became obvious that the current roster will not cut it in MoP unless we get couple of more quality recruits. So far we haven't been able to get the roster we needed and have decided it's better to continue as a 10man guild from now on than to hope for something miraculous to happen in the upcoming weeks. This also leaves time for our players to find a new guild before MoP if they so desire..

[chaos5061]

Raid testing will resume this Thursday, September 13.

Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below for all Beta Test Realms, regardless of suggested geographical region.

Gara'jal (Mogu'shan Vaults) - 25 Player Heroic
10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST)

Blade Lord Ta'yak (Heart of Fear) - 25 Player Heroic
16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT, 01:00 CEST)

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session or cancel it entirely, due to bugs, builds, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

[chaos5061]

Mists of Pandaria Experience to Level
We have definitely been tuning XP in Pandaria, and trying to hit a pace where a character with no rest, no heirlooms, and no guild is leveling comfortably.

There was a significant decrease in the XP required to level from 87-90 applied a couple of weeks ago, and there was a similar adjustment for level 86 prior to that.

Completed Kun-Lai Summit today, they lower the req. XP a few patches back so I was able to ding lvl88 by the Summit quests alone finally. It's still tight though, by doing every single quest in the zone I have dinged a few quests before Shado-Pan area (my last questhub) ends. I completed the zone with no rested XP at all and unguilded.
This is pretty much what we're aiming for. We may still need to make a small tweak here or there.

Do we know the current total XPs required for each level from 85-90? Is this posted somewhere?

Currently
86 13000000
87 15080000
88 18980000
89 22880000
90 27560000

The fact is -- most people are in guilds, or do gathering along the way, or run dungeons, or use heirlooms, or build up some rest. Some people only quest in groups (and are therefore able to kill many more enemies per hour). Some only ever play solo.

The values above may get changed a little bit in the next two weeks, but only if it can be demonstrated that they are still too high.

Brewfest Boss Level and Brewfest Dates
Word is, Coren Direbrew has been working out with bigger kegs and he will indeed be a level 90 dungeon boss and his loot has been adjusted accordingly. Pace was something we considered, so we pushed the actual event by just over a week from when it normally happens (which you should be able to see on your in-game calendars now) to give players a bit more time to reach level 89, the minimum level required to queue for the encounter. Oh, we also added a couple more surprises but you’ll have to wait and see.

Challenge Modes Differences
Challenge modes are more than just a timed run. On a basic level, every single creature in Challenge Mode dungeons is significantly stronger than the Heroic version (typically by a larger proportion than you see going from Normal to Heroic raiding, for what that's worth), and where appropriate, additional enemies or new mechanics are added to make sure that the threat of defeat is always present. For many players, simply successfully completing a challenge run is going to be, well, a challenge. That's why we award excellent Valor gains for doing so. Aiming for Silver, let alone Gold, will be something for experienced players to do once they've mastered the content.

Players who tested the Scarlet Halls challenge mode when that one was open, to name one example, can probably attest that the Armory section of that dungeon is every bit as brutal as anything in Heroic Shattered Halls was in Burning Crusade.

Account Wide Professions
Vanilla was a time of experimentation and 90%+ of the population playing with 1 main. Now it's a chore to level First Aid for alts hence it's difficult to see it seriously in design.
Well, if you look at it like that, why not make levelling and loot account wide too? Shouldn't new characters actually be new?

Class Quests
I personally loved Anathema’s quest line, it was one of the most fun quests I have ever completed, I suppose that's mostly because of the sense of accomplishment it yielded in the end and also because of its higher than usual difficulty level.
That being said, we will have some really nice Monk quests, but for now, although we would love to do more class quests, we are focusing a bit more on faction specific quests. We have 11 classes, that means we would have to use a ton of resources to implement those quests and we just can’t spare them at this moment.

Storyline and faction-specific quests on the other hand are getting some love; we’re focusing quite a lot on the Alliance VS Horde conflict for Mists of Pandaria, we will use plenty of other ways to help bring that conflict to another level, including for example the usage of scenarios.
We’re really excited about bringing this old and original conflict back into Warcraft again.

Be prepared for some epic legendary quests though as the expansion progresses!

Pandaren Monk Pet Lore?
Yeah, of all the bizarre pets out there to collect, I have to say I think the little Pandaren is one of the least strange ones, lore-wise — I have a tiny Archangel of Justice following me around most of the time!

I'm sure each of them can be explained in some way though. Magical error, inter-dimensional rifts, alchemy accident...

[chaos5061]

Save big and prepare for Pandaria with a new sidekick. This week only, you can get the World of Warcraft Pandaren Monk companion pet for just $5 (EU - 5€ / 4.5£). That’s 50% off the regular price, making this a great time to round out your pet collection before the imminent arrival of the Pet Battle System.

Hurry, this offer ends September 17, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.

[chaos5061]

In case I missed anything in a minute I will post Blizzards Transcript of the AMA they just had on Reddit.

[chaos5061]

To keep the information we shared on /r/WoW in one handy location, we've put together a full transcript for you. We've trimmed the fat wherever possible, to give you just the facts. If you'd like to read the full threads in which these answers were provided, you can click the "Q" link next to the top question of each conversation. Threads are sorted under each of the participating developers:
Tom Chilton, Game Director
Q&A Focus: PvP, gameplay systems, cross-realm zones, character models, development timelines, Activision's role in design
Dave Kosak, Lead Quest Designer
Q&A Focus: lore, novels, characters, quest and zone design
Ion Hazzikostas, Lead Encounter Designer
Q&A Focus: dungeons, raids, boss encounters, loot systems, talent systems, endgame progression, future patch content
Greg Street, Lead Systems Designer
Q&A Focus: cross-realm zones, dungeons, raids, character models, classes, gameplay systems, content concepts

[chaos5061]

Tom Chilton, Game Director
Q. What's the status on updating player character models?
Also, thanks for allowing players to mount after drinking Noggenfogger. I asked about it at BlizzCon 2011.
A. Actively working on updating character models! It's a high priority for us.
Q. I am playing on a low-population server (5 ppl online right now, Wednesday primetime 50-60, 4k items in the auction house, 2 raiding guilds left on the server) and it is no longer fun to play there. The auction house is almost empty and every article is heavily overpriced (compared to other servers), the trade-chat is very slow (10-20 lines per day), but what really bugs me is that I can't find/build raids anymore. The thing I love about WoW by far the most is raiding, but there are no people left on the server to start pug-raids. Having a guild where I can raid with my main-character is the only reason I still play on that server (despite having a great community there with rl-meetings etc). I know for sure that my server is not the only one like that. The new cross-realm zones won't help either, since they just "fill up" the leveling-areas, but do not change anything regarding raids (where the latest content will not be accessible via battle tag x-realm raids) or a more populated trade chat. So on regards of all people on my server, here is my question:
tl;dr: (When) will you do something to help/save the dying/dead servers like merging some of them? I would even be willing to give up my beloved toon's name for being able to have fun again.
A. Cross-realm zones are definitely our first move toward improving the play experience for low-pop servers (or even medium population).
Beyond just the fact that the world will be more populated, the ability to make friends at the battle tag level (since that friendship level is cross-server) combined with the ability to do group content with those players represents a huge step forward in the ability for players on smaller servers to access a huge community to play with.
With regard to the auction house, I can imagine a future where we might decide to make auction houses cross-server. It's not something to jump into lightly, but there may be ways to design a cross-realm auction house that ensures a viable economy without getting "too big".
I'll add to this by saying that the nature of the way the player population distributes itself, merging servers ends up not really being the great solution many players imagine.
At this point, the overwhelming majority of players online at any given time are at max level and hanging around in major population centers. Merging servers makes the cities far more populated, but the outdoor world still ends up feeling dead, nothing like what the world feels like when the player population in general is still leveling-up. Even if you assume MoP succeeds in getting people back out into the world, it's important to understand that that will mean people will be out in the world in Pandaria, but the rest of the world would still feel abandoned.
Q. I'd really honestly just like an answer as to why we had the massive delay from raid to next expansion again. We were told there wouldn't be a repeat of ICC -> Cata, but it happened again with Dragonsoul -> Pandas.
If the answer is as simple as it was a mistake in planning I'd understand entirely, it would just mean a lot for my guild if we got an answer as to why.
A. To be fair, Dragon Soul -> Pandaria will have been several months faster than ICC -> Cata. That being said, I totally agree that it's still way too long. This is something we're committed to making better.
Q. I have three quick questions for you.
1. Have you considered adding in a system to make it easier for PVPers to find team mates for arenas and rated BG's? Such as cross-realm LFG channels and a list of players that are LFG with class/spec/rating etc?
2. Have you considered adding some sort of gold income to PVP, such as a small gold reward for doing random BG's?
3. What is your current opinion on the overall state of Mists PVP? Is it where you want it to be with regards to player survivability, healing, damage, and CC?
A. 1. Yes, a system like this is something we'd like to see. We have a variety of improvements we're planning for both rated and unrated BGs.
2. It has been considered, but isn't currently in the works. We'll see how the MoP endgame plays out before further consideration. Bear in mind I say this as a habitually broke WoW player that spends a lot of time doing PvP and would definitely benefit from it.
3. At 85 the numbers are kind of wild... healers heal for a ton as a percentage of a health bar and non-healers die too quickly. At 90, health pools increase more than damage does (by roughly a 3:2 ratio, although your mileage may vary), so it should be noticeably better.
Q. Improvements for Random BG queuing?
Is there a plan to make queuing for battlegrounds randomly at max level more enjoyable? I understand that gear doesn't make the player but it's frustrating when I'm T2 Full Cata getting paired with people with 80k-90k health who can barely do any damage. This must be frustrating from their end as well getting their face smashed in.
I wouldn't mind waiting for a longer queue to be put with people around my MMR/iLvl.
It would also be nice if teams had at least two healers. I'd be willing to wait longer for that as well.
A. Yes. We'd like to do make queuing for random BGs better by ensuring some semblance of healer balance between alliance/horde. For example, having no healer on your 15-person team when the opponents have 3 can have a huge impact on your team's chance of success. Also, we're considering more aggressively separating players with entry-level gear from everyone else (unless they're grouped with a player with non entry-level gear).

[chaos5061]

Q. Question for Game Director Tom Chilton:
What happened to the raid/arena observer feature mentioned during BlizzCon 2011?
Almost every guild has at least two raiders more than their respective raid size (our 25 man guild had up to 40 raiders at one point). So we rotate and substitute from boss to boss. But having to explain the same boss mechanics for several weeks gets really troublesome. Could it be possible upon entering an instance, to mark the raid as observable for guild members or even the public? These players could then fly around like invisible Eyes of Kilrogg watching the raid fighting bosses as a first-hand experience. Maybe add invisible walls after each boss to prevent dungeon exploring.
A. Observer modes are still on our want list, it's just a question of when we get to it. So far, other features and changes have been higher priority but hopefully one of these days we'll finally get it done.
Q. First off - thank you for the awesome game and the many hours of fun it's provided from when I first started in June 2005! Two questions:
There seems to be a lot of hesitation about expanding features like raid finder and scenarios to low level characters and to older content. It seems like giving people an option to queue up for more group quests through scenarios as they level would build up a better social environment in the game - an element that is often overlooked when leveling and then quickly becomes important in the endgame. Plus, for people like myself who've done a lot of the old content when it was once relevant, it would be fun to show friends that are new to the game what MC and BWL were like when it wasn't something you went in with a friend and blew up in 5 minutes. Why the hesitation on adding in these features?
Professions - crafting in WoW is not something I enjoy doing a lot, but often feels mandatory or at least needed to be able to sustain the stuff I want to do in game. In Cataclysm, the multi-point skill-ups helped some, but crafting still feels like an entirely UI bound exercise without a lot of real fun to be had other than playing in a server economy or crafting some fun items like mounts and pets. Do you have any ideas on ways to improve trade skills to make them feel more enjoyable?
A. From somebody that has worked for nine years in an effort to provide fun, thanks for being such a dedicated long-time player!
We'd definitely love to expand raid finder and scenarios to lower-level characters. There are a lot of hurdles to overcome as it relates to scaling/tuning the content and appropriately rewarding characters of varying levels though, so it isn't something we've gotten to yet. Someday I think it'll happen. Although, we're certain to be accused of trying to pawn off "rehashed content" when we get to it. =[
I totally agree that there are tons of cool things we can (and should) be pursuing to make our professions gameplay much more interesting. This is something we'd love to tackle!
Q. There seems to be a significant lack of clarity on many people's parts about what impact (if any) Activision has had on Blizzard. As the people designing the game, do you feel there has been a change in how things are done since the merger, either within game development or the company in general?
A. Since there aren't a lot of people that can authoritatively answer your question, I'll tackle it.
I'll come out and say it. Activision gets an unfair reputation among our players for this, as does Bobby Kotick. We do demos for the Activision executive team about twice per year (sometimes only once). They ask intelligent questions about why we're doing what we're doing, but at no point have any mandates (or even "suggestions") about the game's design been issued.

[chaos5061]

Dave Kosak, Lead Quest Designer
A. Wait – we’re supposed to answer questions about Mists of Pandaria? I was hoping to just post pictures of my cat for karma. http://imgur.com/3UbZM
Q. What do you think the biggest challenge was in wanting to change how Mists plays compared to Cata?
A. I'll answer as the Lead Quest Designer, although others can chime in.
We wanted Pandaria to have a wide swath of content for all different types of players. To this end we wanted to add really awesome hardcore skill-based challenges (getting gold in all the Challenge Mode dungeons is a FEAT to be PROUD of!), as well as more casual experiences (Pet Battles is a really wonderful, low-stress, turn-based system that everyone can enjoy.)
From the quest perspective, we've always wanted more things to do with your max-level character, especially if you're not into Dungeons or Raids. One entire zone (Vale of Eternal Blossoms) is dedicated to level-90 content. It's a randomized series of missions to experience every day. The Mogu attack different parts of the Veil every day. New quests and hubs will unlock as you adventure. And as you earn reputation with the Golden Lotus faction, you'll unlock a story arc that carries through until you're exalted.
That's just one example. All of the factions have something special going on, so that they're not just a bar that grows along the bottom of your screen. The Tillers give you your own personal farm. The Shado-Pan companions accompany you on your quests every day, and you can unlock more companions, etc., etc. These are just a couple examples.
I would say that's one of the major differences between Mists and Cata - there's just plain MORE TO DO, regardless of your playstyle!
Q. How pleased are you with the lore and storyline in MoP? Any hints or teasers?
A. The story for Mists was a real challenge because we wanted to tell a story that didn't have a big giant villain on the cover of the box. I'm immensely pleased with how it all came together; it's a real journey. After the widespread destruction of Cataclysm, Pandaria is a great change of pace. You can really delve in and explore a beautiful place.
We kick things off with a bang and then strand you on the continent to fend for yourself. You'll get to know the locals, solve some local problems, and learn what makes this land so different from the rest of Azeroth.
We've got a whole story arc planned out for the subsequent patches, where the war between the Alliance and Horde really heats up and splashes onto Pandaria itself. The pandaren force us to question what we're really fighting over - perhaps ultimately, it's a story about the factions defining who they want to be.
Don't worry - just because there's no villain on the box doesn't mean you won't be fighting for your life against some really brutal badasses...
Q. I know this might sound like asking too much to give away, but the Sha have really interested me going into MoP. How significant are these strange negative beings going to be in the overall story and plot of Pandaria? What makes them unique to the continent of Pandaria? And in that vein, do they pose a threat to all of Azeroth?
A. Great question! Sha energy is CENTRAL to the story in Pandaria. It's the reason that pandaren culture has evolved along the lines it has. (If you're really curious about the Lore, follow the story of the Last Pandaren Emperor by finding all of his lore objects hidden in the world and talking to Lorewalker Cho.)
A. The arrival of the Alliance and Horde on the continent really uncorks the bottle - this long suppressed energy explodes out, causing havoc from coast to coast. You can earn the trust of the wary pandaren by helping to clean up your mess. There's a real cultural exchange that happens: The pandaren learn a lot about the Alliance and Horde, and hopefully the factions learn a lot about the pandaren that they can apply to their own situation.
At a deeper level, there's a lot of symbology with the sha, which is good from a storytelling perspective. There are some wonderful moments in the game - one of my favorite stories has to do with a Shado-Pan warrior dealing with the death of her husband, which opens up her heart to the Sha of Hatred.
If you're intrigued by the concept, you'll find that the sha plays a big role in a lot of the quests, dungeons, and raids. Sweet!
Is the sha a threat to Azeroth as a whole? Possibly. I'd be more worried about the orc with the nukes.

[chaos5061]

Q. As much as you are able to go into, can you explain the thought process behind the legendary gems and the future of the legendary Black Prince quest line in MoP (and perhaps any more details about the future of the questline)?
How do you think this legendary or legendaries will affect guilds and LFR players alike? Did you go for something that won't be as headache inducing as previous legendaries?
A. Wrathion has a vision for the future of Azeroth - a united Azeroth - and he's not too particular about how we get there. We're big fans of characters who flirt along the line between hero and villain.
In 5.0, Wrathion is definitely feeling out the factions and trying to formulate a plan. It's up to you to impress him. You'll have another chance in 5.1, when the war rolls up onto the pandaren shores. As for his next move... well, no spoilers.
One of our goals with the Legendary in 5.0 is to remove some of the guild headaches and drama often associated with Legendaries. Everyone can begin working on getting a Legendary immediately, even if you use LFR. (You'll be able to gather faster with your guild, though.) Getting the final legendary (whatever form it takes) won't be an easy feat - you'll have to participate in content throughout ALL the patches.
It's a great opportunity for ALL players to experience a legendary questline!
Q. Are we having more questlines like Angrathar the Wrath Gate?
A. I guess this depends on what you think defines that event. Are you asking for more quests that have an awesome climactic cinematic? Are you asking for more quests that require you to do a whole lot of things over one or more zones before it all comes together? Are you asking for quests where you delve into major cities for huge lore events?
The answer is: Yes, yes, and ... yes.
Although these events are few and far between - we want them to feel special. And some big events will happen in the patches. Glad you liked the Wrathgate! It was a big milestone for WoW storytelling.
Q. I can still remember the Wrathgate cinematic starting up on my screen, completely unexpected. I burst into a huge, nerdy grin at the idea that the game's storytelling was heading in this direction. WoW's visual style is so well-suited to those specially-animated cutscenes; it's like watching the coolest cartoon ever. I know those must take a long time to plan and create, but I sincerely hope they keep coming!
A. Hopefully this isn't too buried, I wanted to talk briefly about cutscenes. If you've been playing the game since vanilla, you know that our storytelling is constantly evolving. We're always trying new things.
When it comes to full-on cinematics, we definitely have more of them in Pandaria. They highlight KEY moments in the game and the lore; you'll see one when you first get your mission to go to Pandaria, and there's a whopper of a movie when you play through the climax of the Jade Forest. This stuff is AWESOME, we've got a great team who's put together some really magical pre-rendered moments.
HOWEVER!
It's way more important to us to convey story through gameplay, not movies. To that end, there's a lot of "less flashy" stuff we do in Pandaria to surround your character with story as you play. NPCs will seamlessly start to follow you or fight with you, the environment will change around you as you do things, and we try to have a lot more key lore characters directly involved in your experience. We're trying to do all of these things without breaking players into different phases constantly (there's less phasing in Pandaria than in previous expansions), and we're trying to do it without having super-linear zones anymore.
It's tricky. I can't say we've "nailed it." But I think Pandaria has the best in-game storytelling we've ever had in an expansion. I'm really looking forward to seeing it all play out!!